[ti]private[/ti]Amygdala

The world swirled around Orion as it loaded in, and soon the fighter found himself side by side with a familiar face.  Bee had conjured up the insane idea of diving into the digital quarantine zone on Bunya's equally deranged request.  He supposed it was content, and if it was truly unsafe Hydance wouldn't have let it pass the QA side of things...right?  He was starting to get a little worried about the whole thing honestly, Hydance was being sketch recently and some of the things he'd seen in and out of game were making the hairs on his arms stand on end.

Seriously?  Bryan Nautilus had to be some kind of twitter bot, no one was that cool.

...

Maybe the homie he'd found himself standing alongside, hence why he'd ignored his basic instinct to avoid this quest like the digital plague it was.  "Aight," Orion would begin, adjusting his trademark bandanna into a mask over his mouth, trying to keep any errant spores out of his digital lungs.  "I'm willing to follow the game logic there for sure, drop us in somewhere we can find our quest objective, that makes sense, but what exactly are we looking for a sample of?"  He would fiddle with his wildly glitchy UI before managing to getting his cat out of the bag, with a flash Achilles spawned behind him and the buff cat let out a slight hiss. 

"It fucking STINKS in here."  

Orion would turn around, hoping that Achilles was in fact doing the stanky leg, but no, he was staring at a pile of what looked like some sort of remains covered in a batch of moss furrier than the Incineroar.  "Fuckin gross dude," Orion would quip squatting low to get a closer look.  "Doesn't look like any of the corruption I've ever seen, how bout you Bee?  You find anything worth ganderin?"

He was hoping they could get this done and dusted quickly, the last thing he wanted to do was linger.  Right now it was a cautious level of...respect for the situation, but this definitely had the ability to go full Killing Floor at the drop of a hat.  

"Honestly I have no clue..."  Orion would quip back following his friend into the adjoining room.  "The last time I saw corruption it was all dark and gooey and stuck to everything...kinda like an oil spill and those cute fucking..."  He would lean forward and place his ears against the faucet to listen to whatever it was Bee was talking about words trailing off.

"...penguins."

His pulse quickened as he listened the the guttural grumble from the piping, wishing desperately to pull his ears away, to not be listening to whatever foul and dark curse was being chanted somewhere far below in a cold dark depth far removed from the light of god.  It took Achilles worriedly grabbing his shoulder to break the spell, and Orion would jolt away from the sink as if zapped by static electricity.

"What the fuck was that!"
"Boss!"  Achilles exclaimed, shaking him slightly. "Something's outside."
Orion would turn a worried glance to Bee before scanning the kitchen and spotting a rather large mottled piece of wood that looked like perhaps once in a bygone era it would have been a leg to a dining table.  Squatting low he would press one finger to the bandanna over where his lips would be with one hand, grasping at the makeshift club with another hand.  With the same hand he'd initially gestured with, he would cup his ears and stain into the distance.  

At first he couldn't tell if it was the wind or not, but slowly but surely the idle shuffling of...something along the ground registered audibly.  It was a slow and staggering noise, soft and irregular in rhythm and cadence.  Some sort of ambling, aimless gait that grew louder with each uncertain step.  

Something was coming this way.

"I think we have company..."

Orion whispered, fingers clenching into the club tight enough for the weakened wood to groan and crack slightly.  He had no clue what was out there, but if it was this far into the corruption zone he could only imagine the worst.  

It was like something out of a bad Walking Dead reboot.  Two dudes, their burly mon and well...whatever the fuck this god damn thing was.  What cliche name would Bee and Rion dub for it?  Shambler?  Walker?  Shuffler?  "It might still be a mormon..."  Orion quipped through grit teeth, hoping that jokes would defuse the tension in the air.

It didn't.

The tension was so thick you couldn't even slice it with a knife, and Orion found his breath hanging in his lungs like an aery cattle rustler.  He was certain he was going to break this club if he clung to it any tighter, but his eyes were glued to the monster before them through their shitty vantage point.  It hadn't yet entered the house, that was good, it meant that MAYBE it didn't know they were there.  But that didn't bring him any solace, for if there was one zombie chances are there were likely more, after all this building didn't just evaporate into a mist filled, dilapidated, moldy mess.

Something did that.

And frankly, the longer time went on, the more Orion found his heart racing.  Adrenaline coursing through his veins.  Decking a pidgey out of the air to save some limeaid worms?  Fucking easy.  Charging the broken, mottled and decayed visage of a human being and full on caving its skull in with a club?  That took a real sense of testicular fortitude that Orion wasn't quite sure he had in him.  Factor in that fucking murmur in the air, that had once seeped in through the drain as a low gurgle had seemingly begun to pick up in fervor and noise and well, Orion found himself starting to panic.  Fight?  Or Flight?

The backdoor was just behind them, and frankly seemed like the easiest option, but that came with its own set of risks and unknowns, and could potentially be a dead end or a trap.  No way of knowing, yet forward well...

There was a zombie in the way.

"Follow me and stay close." Taking a deep breath, Orion shuffled his way towards the front door, urging Bee, Taka, and Achilles to take up arms and follow him.  Achilles took the big portion of the fridge door to use as a tower shield and took up a defensive position behind his master as Orion made for the door, doing his best to peer out any cracked windows or shattered walls into the unceasing wall of mist looking for any other potential tangos before finally pushing the door open.

Rookie mistake.

The door let out a loud squeal as it swung open slowly, and immediately the shambling figure stopped it's movement.  Orion held his breath for a moment, hoping that maybe the creature would-

It's head swiveled on it's neck like some ghastly sort of owl, vertebrae cracking audibly even from it's distance as putrid yellow irises framed in bloody red sclera locked gazes with the fighter's frightened eyes, it's maw contorting in some wretched expression of anguish and wrath as it let out a visceral screech, aborting the pregnant silence with extreme prejudice.  

"Oh fuck oh fuck!"  Orion hissed as the thing began to amble forward, moving impossibly fast on broken limbs.  "They're fast!"  Several more screeches answered the initial call to war.

"And there's alot of them!"  Achilles mewled.  "What do we do?"

"FIGHT!"  Orion howled, the adrenaline in his body compelling him forward to the charging creature with his club brandished overhead.

"INSIDE!"  Orion barked, his club crunching into the skull of their first foe forcefully, splatters of black paste staining the the crumbling concrete to his left.  The creature staggered back and Orion hefted his club up one more and brought it down with gusto, grateful that his Ironsmith class features seemed to be adding some weight to his blow.  The creature staggered back, but didn't crumple like it should have, after all, Orion knew what someone looked like when they were down and out.  The creature continued to shamble forward, and Orion backpedaled, his eyes scanning the foggy horizon for more foes.  

Achilles on the other hand hopped on the creature atop Taka with gusto, dropping a Darkest Lariat and pulling the creature off.  Once free of potential friendly fire, he took a deep breath and let out a ruby gout of flame that cut through the fog like a superheated knife through butter, charring both Taka and Orion's attackers in one swift motion.  The fighter quickly assessed the oncoming foes, who while far away would not stay that way, and turned to usher the team back indoors.  

"We've got like, five minutes at best, find the heaviest shit we can and bar the door and windows!"

"On it boss!"  Achilles hissed, grabbing the rotting remains of a couch and shoved it against the door.

"Worst comes to worst we can slow em down on the barricade and bolt out the back."

"Hopefully that counts cause I don't think I want to be making this a regular vacation spot truth be told."

The wall erected before the door and the windows as shabby at best, suffering from the insufferable desire for architects to flanks doors with big fuck off windows that would let your neighbor watch your TV with you from their attic window with a pair of binoculars.  That's all to say, this was barely going to slow down the creatures giving chase, let alone stop them.  Growling, Orion would turn and watch the medical procedures proceed, his heart thumping loudly as adrenaline pumped through his veins.  He would reach for a discarded and broken down broom in the corner and toss it to Achilles, the lion man grabbing it without taking an eye off the window.

"What'll we do boss!  I'm counting at least six more of those fuckers."  

Six?  That was literally triple what they'd just dealt with and they were already starting to deal with some not so fun side effects.  He wasn't sure Taka had a lot of gas left in the tank right now for a fight pending his operation, and frankly he couldn't even imagine trying to deal with more right this moment.

"Fuck it, we're bailing out the back."  Orion barked, motioning for Bee and Taka to follow along.  "Let that slow em down and we'll skip town."

Backing out the kitchen and into the misty backyard, Orion couldn't help but shake the feeling like they were walking into a trap.  That strange noise from the sink hadn't gotten any quieter when they'd gone outside the first time, in fact, it'd gotten louder.  Now it sounded almost like some sort of foul chant, as if some mighty being was watching them from a distance and poking holes into voodoo dolls of them.  He did his best to shake the notion and ushered the gang to the other side of the yard over twisted and gnarled bikes and the ruins of what would have once been a radical playhouse for a gaggle of small children.  The fence was gnarled and overgrown with all sorts of ivy and lichen, and he braced his hands to help Achilles step up to the top.

"Comeon Bee, Up and over!  We'll lose em if we house hop a bunch I bet!"

The first fence had been rendered useless in a matter of seconds, but that didn't stop Orion and the gang from trying again and vaulting the next set of fences on house over, this time Taka did his best super-mario sunshine impression leaving them a fortified wa- alright well maybe not fortified but the putrid planks of rotted wood were better than nothing.  Perhaps it was the thought that counted, this was a strictly mental situation really, a controlled and orchestrated lucid nightmare put on by some fucker sitting smug in San Fran drinking chai out of a world's number one programmer mug while watching players undergo the hellish torment they'd cooked up after spending eight nights in a row watching SAW and 28 days later.

Regardless, Bee's question hung in the air like the fetid corpse of a cattle rustler who'd been strung up for the whole town to see, and Orion pondered their options.  His point about the water spouts seemed poignant, whatever that strange noise was it definitely wasn't friendly and he most certainly did NOT want to meet it's source.  Going through the house opened the door to a safer place to hole up, but it wasn't far from their fearsome foes and he didn't think it would take long for them to catch up.  They could go out the front of that house, chance that street, but honestly that idea didn't seem to be very cash money either.  There were bound to be more of these things nearby, and if the ruckus hadn't alerted the whole ass horde yet it would most likely be on like Donkey Kong if they just barreled out into the open a second time.  

"I think we should-"

SHKREEEEEEEEEEEAWK

A hellish roar filled the air and Orion's eyes shot upwards.  Above was a massive tangle of wings and talons, seemingly haphazardly lashed together by bits of viscera and mottled flesh.  It didn't so much as fly as roughly floundered through the air violently, each of it's limbs thrashing and clawing at the air as if to physically fight gravity.  He wasn't quite sure what the fuck he was looking at, but he did know one thing for certain.

It had seen them, and it was coming their way.

"Nevermind!  We're going inside!  Now!"

Orion turned tail to make a break for the cracked sliding glass doors of their refuge only to see his hope of an easy escape shatter as one of the mangled and mottled monsters smashed through it like a fucked up Kool Aid man, pieces of glass shredding through it's flesh and finding a new home embedded within the beast.  Black blood wept from it's wounds as the glass cactus staggered forward shrieking, and Orion knew that it was time to fight again.  "I've got the one in our way!"  Orion yelled.  "Achilles, help Bee and Taka take down the flier!"

This was going to be a long trip, and Orion didn't think it was going to be one they all walked away from.